Forging Democracy from Below : Issues and Challenges of Community Participation in Local Governance

There is no doubt that absence of functional structures that can be harbinger of governance and democracy from below have undermined community participation and quality representation at the Ward Committees, local communities, Community Development Associations (CDAs) and Community Development Committees (CDC) in most developing countries. This article examines how community participation and engagement have forged democracy from below with specific references to Lagos State, Nigeria and eThekwini Municipality in South Africa. The article is anchored on democratic governance theory and qualitative combined with a case study approach was used. It utilised descriptive-comparative research method to analyse data collected from secondary sources such as journals, articles, textbooks, newspapers, government publications, and internet materials. The article reveals that community engagement at the local level can foster democracy by enhancing governance through effective public service delivery. It also observes that this can be achieved through deliberative practices that seek citizens’ participation in governmental and policy process. It argues that political sensitization is necessary at various levels at the grassroots to increase the awareness of the citizens on local participation and in electing credible candidates to represent them in government. The article concludes that writing and sending bills to the National Parliament, National Assembly, or Provincial or State Houses of Assembly by the local communities, ward committees, CDC, and CDA's will forge democracy from below and this can be achieved through the engagement of politicians who are members of these local communities. The paper suggests that democracy can only be strengthened in Nigeria and South Africa provided the enabling structures like local communities, ward committees, CDC and CDA's are functional and made to be part of the democratic system where their inputs will be considered when it comes to the public policy processes. Also, allocating at least a slot to each of these local committees or bodies will engender equitable legislative process and enhance democracy from below in developing countries.